Acoustic guitar mixing-what chain to you use

S

silvercn

New member
Hello- My acoustic guitar track recorded with two mics, (x-y pattern; 12th fret and bridge) -no hardware processor going in, other than my interface. The DAW is SHS7XL. My playing style is primarily finger picking with some strums worked in. Finger picking tends to be pretty dynamic in nature so wondering what are your preferences out there for effects chains, and settings.....

I have already used gain and volume evelops in several places to smooth it out more.
 
I tend to use a vertical XY near the neck joint and a LDD (typically, RE20 or SM7b) near the lower quarter of the sound board. The XY is split, the LDD is centered. Compress the center and allow the dynamics of the XY pair.

Tend to. Typically.
 
Thanks for the info - it would be nice to have a pic of that.... So am figuring this right - you are using 3 mics ? 2 for x-y and the LDD
 
Acoustic guitar - part two

On this post I was hoping for techniques of processing - post recording: what others have found seems to work good in terms of processing the signal with EQ, compression, limiter...etc I know that less is more - but just polling for what works well with AG

Thanks
 
Massive gave you a great suggestion. I haven't heard that one before, and I'm gonna try it out at home. If you really want a shortcut past "use your ears," then use the acoustic guitar presets on your plugins as a starting point, then use your ears.

That's really all you're asking for here is presets. Every mix/player/setup/room/set of intangibles is different, so there's absolutely no way for anybody to give you anything besides what worked for them in what is most likely an entirely different situation. Which is basically what presets on plugins are. You're gonna have to let your ears and your mix tell you what is needed.

If there are particular things you don't like about the sound you are getting, do your best to describe the problems. People will be better able to point you in the right direction from there.

If you can't figure out what exactly is wrong, you just know there's something off sounding about your tracks, post them in the mp3 mixing clinic here:
https://homerecording.com/bbs/forumdisplay.php?f=15

If you don't like that answer, then try this:

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=What+eq+settin...ings+should+I+use+on+an+acoustic+guitar+track

Love that website.:D
 
Massive Master said:
I tend to use a vertical XY near the neck joint and a LDD (typically, RE20 or SM7b) near the lower quarter of the sound board. The XY is split, the LDD is centered. Compress the center and allow the dynamics of the XY pair.

Tend to. Typically.
Click to expand...


MM - why vertical? Was it just you tried it once and dug the results, or was there a technical reason?

I'll give your approach a go the next time I track an acoustic, but my firewire card's on the fritz so it'll be another week or two before I get a chance.
 
Think about the stereo spread for a minute (with the mics positioned vertically). Specifically, from a guitar or horizontally from a cello...

I think a lot of people tend to think very "two dimensionally" when it comes to mic positioning...
 
I try to keep it simple light compression light eq if needed. Sometimes if it comes out good I don't do anything at all unless its affecting the rest of the mix:)
 
Massive Master said:
Think about the stereo spread for a minute (with the mics positioned vertically). Specifically, from a guitar or horizontally from a cello...

I think a lot of people tend to think very "two dimensionally" when it comes to mic positioning...
Click to expand...

ahh... That the bass strings are above the treble on the neck, and if you position your X-Y pair accordingly, you can accent that?

I mean, there are huge timbral differences present anyway closer to the bridge vs closer to the neck (if nothing else, even using the exact same pickup in both positions an electric guitar will sound strikingly different on the bridge position vs the neck) just due to the way the strings are vibrating, but if that's what you're thinking it's certainly an interesting idea, I'll give it a go. :)
 
Yeah, I would think the timbral differences between different positions horizontally on the guitar would be the reasoning. I hadn't even considered how the actual position of the strings in relation to each other would play into it, but it makes perfect sense. You've got that 12'th fret brightness panned left and right with the slightly different accents based on string position, then the LDD gluing them together and providing balance with that body warmth in the center.
Just from thinking about it, I really can hear how it should sound. I can't wait till the weekend comes so I can give this one a try. :)
 
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